"Summer Surprise"

I've been painting for decades.  In that time I have created a lot of paintings.

But THIS is my favorite. 

It is a painting I just completed as a gift for our dear friends, Jean and Ernie.  The subjects in the painting are Gigabyte and his mother, Queenie.  They are real horses who live on Jean and Ernie's beautiful mini-horse ranch.

Currently Jean and Ernie have three other baby miniature horses, all born in the last few months.  They are all sweet and adorable, but Gigabyte is the most beautiful...AND he is going to be ours!!! 

Seriously.  Jean and Ernie are giving him to us when he is weaned.  Yes, a GIFT HORSE!  Words cannot convey how thrilling a prospect this is for me.  We have two other gift horses from Jean and Ernie, -- Pixel and Twitter -- and I love them more than I can express.

I titled this painting SUMMER SURPRISE because the vet examined Queenie after all the mares at Jean and Ernie's had been with Tivo, the stallion, and the vet said, based on exam and ultrasound, "Nope, she is not pregnant."

Oops, Dr. Bill!  She WAS.  Gigabyte arrived with no problems and no human help one night in June, in the pasture where Queenie and Tivo, Gigabyte's father, were residing to keep them isolated from the other mares and their new babies.

Imagine Ernie's surprise when he walked down their long driveway the next morning to pick up the newspaper and saw this beautiful baby...up, dry and nursing, watched over by his proud father. 

Gigabyte will serve as a beautiful reminder to me that in LIFE there are often wonderful but unexpected surprises...and that Nature always finds a way.